One month old

Rylan is one month old today. The past month has flown by! Why couldn't my pregnancy go that fast?

Like the mohawk? It's Russ' doing.

Where's the baby?

Becca thought she needed some animals and a baby doll to sleep with.

Happy Birthday Russ!

I'm sorry I forgot to tell you happy birthday this morning. It was so hectic getting Maddie out the door, nursing a baby, getting Becca ready for school, etc. I stink, I know. I win the bad wife of the year award. I remembered before 10:00 this morning though. That should count for something. I didn't totally forget. I hope the cookies and balloons we brought to work make up for it.

I love you!

Happy 38th Birthday!

First Day of School

Becca started her new school on Monday. She just goes twice a week, but it's a nice break for me and Rylan. She was so excited on Sunday night, but when I got her up Monday morning, not so excited. She was very nervous, which is strange for our social butterfly. Russ finally got her to smile before we left. But when we got to school, she started crying. Maddie and Russ tried to comfort her, but she did not want to be there- as you can tell from these pictures:

Maddie started first grade today. I can't believe she's a first grader! That's what I used to teach, so to think of her like one of my former students is strange. She doesn't seem old enough! I am really excited about Maddie's teacher. I have heard wonderful things about her. And Maddie has many of her kindergarten classmates in her class. So she was thrilled about that. I think she's going to have a great year!

And I HAD to throw some pictures in of Rylan. She is getting so big- and all ready getting chubby. She is just such a good baby. She makes having a third kid seem easy (so far!)

The Last Lecture

I finished Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture last night. You have probably heard of Randy. I heard of him through his youtube video. He was also on Oprah and a few weeks ago, shortly after he died, his interview with Diane Sawyer was on.

Randy Pausch was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given 3-6 months to live. He could have easily curled up into a ball, but he decided to live as much as he could in the time he had left. The college he taught at always had a "Last Lecture Series". A "if you only had a few months to live, what would you do?" kind of lecture. Well, he literally had a few months to live, so he wanted to give bits of advice to his students before he died.

He wrote his Last Lecture not only for his students, but for his kids. He has a 6 year old, a three year old and an 18 month old. He talked about how sad he was that they wouldn't have their dad around. So he video taped himself with the kids and giving bits of wisdom as much as possible. And he put tons of advice for them in his book.

Randy was a "Tigger". He said in his book that there are two types of people in this world- Tiggers and Eeyores. I am more of an Eeyore who desperately wants to be a Tigger. I'm just too lazy. But after reading his book, he has inspired me. Here are some of the things he talked about:

Achieve your childhood dreams. He often kept a crayon in his pocket, so he could take it out and smell it to remind him of being a kid and the dreams he had.

His parents were awesome. They let him dream. They let him paint and draw on his bedroom walls. They made him look things up in the dictionary or encyclopedia. They never coddled him or made him feel like he was "sooo wonderful". After he got his PhD, his mom introduced him by saying, "This is my son. He's a doctor, but not the kind that helps people."

He talked about his football coach and how hard he rode him in practice. Coaches now days can't get away with half the stuff this coach did. But it made him a stronger, better person. An assistant coach noticed the coach was riding Randy pretty hard, but told Randy, "That's a good thing. When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you."

Another thing Randy did that I think is awesome: He had just gotten a new convertible before he was married. He took his niece and nephew almost every weekend for fun little trips. Randy's sister was so worried that one of her kids was going to mess up Uncle Randy's new car. She kept reminding them to keep it clean. That's when Randy opened up a can of soda and poured it all over the back (cloth) seat. He didn't want them to feel bad if they did make a mess. And it's a good thing he did that, his nephew threw up in it the next weekend.

He talks about how brick walls are there for us just to see how badly we want something. Some people hit a brick wall and give up. Others will keep trying until they find a way over it, around it, or through it.

A piece of advice for his young daughter- when it comes to men, just ignore everything they say and only pay attention to what they do. I'll be passing that on to my three daughters for sure!

I highly recommend this book to you all. It is great! It is sad that Randy Pausch couldn't beat his cancer. But he was an optimist all the way through it. A metaphor he used that has really stuck with me is this: "My family is about to be pushed off a cliff. Now I can either curl up in a ball and watch them fall, or I can get to work sewing nets to cushion their fall."

He is blessed he had time to say goodbye.

I finished this book last night- one year later,to the day, that Melinda died. I thought of her and her family the entire time I read this book. I miss her. She was an optimist that would tell you how it was. I loved that about her. She didn't dance around things. I strive to be more like Melinda, Randy and Tigger.

New background and other stuff

To celebrate my blogger-versary, I chose a new background. Pretty, huh? Do you have any idea how many backgrounds there are out there? It took me forever to choose one. So I'm planning on sticking with it for a while.

I added three great songs to my playlist. The first is called Three Little Girls by J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton. I love it! Especially since that is my life now. I never pictured myself with three little girls. (Russ definitely didn't!) But that is what God has blessed us with, so I am extremely happy. It must have been because of all of those times I prayed for a sister. God gave me three girls to be sisters. How blessed they are.

I had a birthday last week. I'm 33 now. Does that still qualify as "early thirties"?

Here are some new pictures of Rylan. She is getting so big so fast. She looks a little like the other girls, but definitely has her own look. I think the brown hair throws us off too. She is just such a good baby. Hardly fusses at all. Maddie and Becca are great big sisters. They are always so willing to help me with whatever I need.

I LOVE the big bows on babies.

Russ can't stand them.

Guess who wins this battle?

Just look at those cheeks!!

The most precious thing ever-

a sleeping baby.

Busy week

Rylan in her Iowa Hawkeye Pjs.

We LOVE this hat Mitzi made for her. The nurses at the hospital kept asking where we got it.

This is just to prove that she has BROWN hair. We are still checking to be sure she's ours. :)

Her first outing dress. We had to go back to the hospital for a jaundice check on Monday. Notice her "sandals". Mitzi crocheted those too. Too cute!

Russ and his 3 girls. Everyone keeps asking me if he's o.k. He's adjusting. Ask us in 10 years.

Rylan is officially one week old (as of yesterday). This past week has flown by. I know having a newborn will do that to you, but so will almost buying a house. The night before Rylan was born, we went and looked at a house and fell in love with it. We came home and were in the middle of figuring out our budget and crunching numbers for a new mortgage, etc. when the phone rang. It was the hospital calling to see if I could be induced on Thursday instead of Friday. Wow! We weren't completely ready, but o.k. One less day to be pregnant sounds great!

As you can imagine, we hardly slept that night. Between thinking about having a baby and wondering if I was ready and if my house was ready, and thinking of buying a new house, my brain wouldn't stop. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep Wednesday night.

Russ took my parents and sister-in-law to see the house on Friday while I was still in the hospital. We were nervous that someone was going to go see it over the weekend and put an offer in on it. So on Saturday, just a few hours after getting out of the hospital, our realtor met us at our house and we signed papers to put in an offer. They counter-offered on Monday. Not low enough, so we put in one more offer. They went down only $1,000 more. Not low enough. So we do NOT have a new house.

I was bummed, but at the same time, we were both a little relieved. Talk about bad timing. There's another house out there for us. We'll find it. In the meantime, we'll enjoy our house and the fact that we have 4.5% interest on it. That's Russ' favorite thing about our house. :)

I know the next few weeks will fly by too. School will be starting soon. Hopefully we'll be in a good routine by then.

I have to thank my Mom and Dad for all of their help this past week. Maddie and Becca loved being with them and it was a great help just to get them out of my hair for a while. They are still adjusting to the new baby, but love her to death just the same.